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Community Studies graduate Jaclyn Moyer receives 2008-09 Deans’ Undergraduate award

June 1, 2009

Jaclyn Moyer, Community Studies graduate in 2008, recently received a coveted 2008-09 Deans’ Undergraduate award for her outstanding senior thesis. Jaclyn’s senior thesis, entitled /A New Frontier: An Exploration into the Relationship Between Environmental Degradation and Social Injustice in Alaska/, reported on her full time field study with Alaska Community Action on Toxics, a grassroots, environmental justice organization, based in Anchorage. In her thesis, Jaclyn wrote about how the cost benefit/risk assessment approach that currently dominates US environmental regulation does not and cannot serve Native Alaskans well. Not only are their livelihood needs not taken into account in these assessments, Native Alaskans do not participate in these assessments, either procedurally or substantially, the latter owing to deep discomfort with valuing nature in the terms required in cost benefit calculations. One of the factors that allowed Jaclyn to merit this award was the integration of beautifully written vignettes from her field notes with conceptual material from her course work.